Globalization and the Americas

Globalization and the Americas is dedicated to understanding the major social, political and economic developments taking place in the Americas. The ever deepening process of globalization has ruptured the hemisphere's frontiers, not only for international capital and trade, but also for the peoples of the Americas who migrate across national frontiers in ever increasing numbers in search of a better life.

The program's activities range from investigative reporting trips to Latin America to participation in conferences and seminars to discuss issues related to globalization and the development of popular movements. We conduct research on the US empire and US foreign policy, including opposition within the United States to imperial wars and intervention in Latin America.

Globalization and the Americas releases news articles on important developments in the hemisphere that are often picked up by a variety of publications and web sites. It also publishes articles in selected journals, and publishes books on critical trends in the Americas.

At present the project is working on a book, The New Fire in the Americas: Popular Challenges to Failing States and a Faltering Empire. Its central thesis is that there is a new rebellion in the Americas, one that provides hope and inspiration in the midst of a world ravished by imperial wars. It is a fire that is burning on many fronts, with differing intensities, one that flares up at unexpected moments in unpredictable locations throughout the hemisphere.

Roger Burbach is coordinator of Globalization and the Americas, working with CENSA Associates Adam Sgrenci, Paul Cantor and Isabella Kenfield on the program.

Communitarian Socialism in Bolivia

By Roger Burbach

When Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, was sworn in to a second term in January, he proclaimed Bolivia a plurinational state that would construct “communitarian socialism.” In an accompanying address, Vice President Álvaro Garcia Linare, envisioned a “socialist horizon” for Bolivia, characterized by “well-being, making the wealth communal, drawing on our heritage . . .” The process “will not be easy, it could take decades, even centuries, but it is clear that the social movements cannot achieve true power without implanting a socialist and communitarian horizon."

Chile's Social Earthquake

By Roger Burbach

March 8, 2010

Chile is experiencing a social earthquake in the aftermath of the 8.8 magnitude quake that struck the country on February 27. “The fault lines of the Chilean Economic Miracle have been exposed,” says Elias Padilla, an anthropology professor at the Academic University of Christian Humanism in Santiago. “The free market, neo-liberal economic model that Chile has followed since the Pinochet dictatorship has feet of mud.”